News Releases / 2008

Kaiser Permanente/CMH Announcement

Ventura, California, 08/13/2008

Kaiser Permanente and Community Memorial Hospital are pleased to announce that they have agreed to a continuing 10-year contract to take effect on January 1, 2009. Community Memorial Hospital has provided hospital services for Kaiser Permanente members in Ventura County since 1999 and the new agreement ensures that CMH will continue to serve as the plan hospital for local Kaiser members through 2018.

"Community Memorial Hospital is a valued partner and we are delighted to announce the long term commitment we now share with this outstanding local hospital," said Jim Malone, Executive Director, Ambulatory Services for Kaiser Permanente. "Local residents are very familiar with the excellent level of patient care provided by Community Memorial Hospital and we are proud to be affiliated with them," he added.

"We are pleased to have this agreement in place and to provide services to Kaiser patients who reside in Ventura County. As a community not-for-profit hospital, our practice is to try to contract with all major health plans in order to provide everyone in our community with access to our hospital and outpatient services. We believe this new contract will provide significant benefits to our community as well as our health system," said Gary Wilde, President and CEO of Community Memorial Health System.

"The long term agreement will provide stability and assure local members that they can continue to count on receiving inpatient care from a trusted and well respected community hospital," said Dr. Manuel Marquez, Assistant Area Medical Director for Kaiser Permanente. "As we continue to develop our inpatient services with Community Memorial Hospital, our members will be better served due to eventual access to HealthConnect, KP's electronic medical records system, as well as integrated systems for chronic disease management and coordination of post-discharge management," said Dr. Marquez.

Kaiser Permanente currently serves close to 40,000 members in the West Ventura County service area and operates 6 medical offices in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo since joining with Buenaventura Medical Group on January 1, 2007. The former BMG physicians had worked closely with Community Memorial Hospital since the group's inception in 1950 with a number of their physicians serving in leadership capacities at CMH over the years.

"Because of our long history and close ties to Community Memorial Hospital, this partnership feels very comfortable and all of our physicians are pleased to continue working hand in hand with the hospital that has served our patients so well for many, many years," said Dr. Marquez

"We are pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with Kaiser Health Plan and with the physicians formerly associated with the Buenaventura Medical Group. One of the added features of this agreement is that Kaiser patients will be also be served by independent specialists associated with CMH." Wilde added.

Community Memorial Hospital which began in 1901 as a single hospital serving its neighbors has today grown into an expansive healthcare system that touches the lives of individuals throughout Ventura County, California and beyond. Kaiser Permanente has been caring for Californian's health for more than 60 years and now serves more than 6.6 million members in the state.

In regard to the rich histories of both organizations, Jim Malone said, "Both Kaiser Permanente and Community Memorial Hospital have long and distinguished traditions of serving as leaders in health care and providing outstanding patient care, so we are confident that together we create an exceptional team."